Universal credit: Sinn Féin and SDLP clash over £20 mitigation decision

A £20 uplift to Universal Credit during the worst of the pandemic ended at the start of October

Sinn Féin and the SDLP have clashed over the executive's decision not to fund a scheme to mitigate the cut in universal credit (UC).

SDLP MLA Nichola Mallon said Sinn Féin Finance Minister Conor Murphy could have recommended a £55m mitigation.

Mr Murphy said there had been "very cynical party politics" around the issue and that the SDLP was being "hypocritical and disingenuous"

On Friday the executive agreed how to allocate about £250m of unspent funds.

Most of that went on health while the Department for Communities was unsuccessful in a bid for £55m related to UC.

Westminster had increased UC, the main working age benefit, by £20 a week during the worst of the pandemic.

That uplift ended at the start of October.

Social security is technically devolved to Stormont but it normally mirrors the wider UK system.

Conor Murphy said the executive had decided to prioritise health

If Stormont wants to run a more generous system it needs to find the money from within its existing budget.

'Decided to prioritise health'

Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey, who like Mr Murphy is a Sinn Féin assembly member, had bid for £55m to restore the £20 UC uplift in Northern Ireland until the end of the financial year.

But Mr Murphy said the executive had decided to prioritise health and agreed that £200m should be allocated to that department.

This meant only £23m was available for other day-to-day spending.

"This was not enough to meet the universal credit bid," he told the Northern Ireland Assembly.

"In addition, it would be important to replace the universal credit uplift on a long-term basis, not just until the end of March.

'The costs of this are expected to rise to £200m per year. In order to adequately fund health and universal credit I therefore set out the pro rata contributions needed from departments other than health to fund the universal credit uplift not just for this financial year, but also for future years.

"I therefore presented a different means of funding the universal credit uplift on a long-term basis. This option was not accepted."

Nichola Mallon criticised the decision on universal credit

Infrastructure Minister Mrs Mallon later told the assembly she had been the only minister at the executive table to state support for the £55m bid from the Department for Communities.

She said: "The finance minister had the power, money and a bid from his party colleague and he could have recommended that bid for approval but he didn't do it."

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She also said that while the executive had discussed the budget allocations the decision was taken by the first and deputy first ministers using the urgent procedure mechanism.

Mr Murphy told her it was "dishonest to publicly say that you object to the use of urgent procedure, while privately you raised no objections."